Week 03 of 12
Identifying the True Return to Player
10 min read
You cannot see a machine's setting from the stool, but in most jurisdictions you can see the aggregate. State gaming commissions publish hold and win figures that bracket the return you are actually facing.
Where the numbers live
Most US gaming regulators publish monthly or annual revenue reports broken out by property, area, and sometimes denomination. Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Colorado are among the more detailed.
The figure to look for is hold percentage or win per unit: coin-in against win. Subtract the hold from 100 and you have the aggregate return for that group of machines.
Reading denomination bands
Return almost always climbs with denomination. Penny games commonly sit in the high eighties; dollar and high-limit banks typically run several points better.
That difference compounds against coin-in, not against your buy-in. This is why bet size and game choice matter more than session length.
Aggregates are not your machine
A published band tells you the neighbourhood, not the address. Treat it as a filter for where to play, never as a claim about the specific machine in front of you.
Your own logged coin-in and net, accumulated over dozens of sessions, is the only return figure that describes your play.
This week on the floor
- · Find the most recent published report for the state you play in and write down the hold for your usual denomination.
- · Compare it to the band one denomination up.
- · Log coin-in on every session this week so your own return figure starts building.
Play the best published band you can properly fund.
Start free